People often say that the "Israel lobby" has far too much control over American foreign policy. What I often wonder is that if Israel has so much control over the United States government, how is it possible that the U.S. refuses to acknowledge the city of Jerusalem as the capital of that country?
If Israeli interests are as powerful as we are often told then surely Washington D.C. would have recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel decades ago, but it has not.
Furthermore, is their any other UN recognized country on the planet that the U.S. refuses to acknowledge the capital thereof? Not that I am aware of, so perhaps someone can enlighten me.
Today in the Jerusalem Post we read:
House of Representatives submitted a bill Monday that would enable Congress to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on American documents.I will be very pleasantly surprised if this bill becomes law, but it represents yet another bet that I would not take. Certainly there will be no support for this measure from the current President of the United States who will quietly work behind the scenes to kill it.
The bill calls for moving the American embassy to Jerusalem. It also challenges the recent Supreme Court decision that prevents Jerusalem, Israel from being written on the passport of a child born in the city.
From the comments:
jboomWell, you have to love this guy.
This is just a publicity stunt to the American people. This will NEVER happen this is being done just so Obama can smack it down and people say hey he doesn't like israel. Israel need to go to their OWN government and work something out. Get the F out of my congress leeches
The comment is entirely incoherent, yet repeats a classic anti-Semitic theme that Jews, as "leeches," suck the blood of host nations.
This is old, old, old stuff. This is quite literally Medieval thinking.
lightharry • a day agojboom seems to have a like-minded friend in lightharry.
This just shows the average American how much influence the Israeli AIPAC has through it's bribing of the Congressmen. We have a congress that no lölonger represents the American tax payer but jumps every time Israel calls
How these individuals fail to see the obvious contradiction between the actual news story and their world-view is pretty remarkable.
This is essentially a story on how friends of Israel, including friends in Congress, are requesting that the U.S. government recognize Israel's capital, Jerusalem, which it refuses to do. Yet, somehow, against all reason, for the geniuses above it means that the Jews have too much power.
guest123 • a day agoI could not agree more.
Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, the recognition of that fact does not alter the fact.
David Schugar • a day agoThis is the kind of sentiment that I was raised within, so to speak.
This is a cause worth fighting for. It would be better received if Israel accompanied this effort with a program for building new & modern Palestinian cities in the West Bank. Cities that they could require background checks for residency to illustrate that those who want to lead normal productive lives (normalization) and foreswear "struggle and resistance" are welcome to participate in the land of milk and honey. Prosperous Palestinian Principalities - each with their own soccer team too.
David has the modern, contemporary, liberal, Enlightenment world-view, but it has a fatal flaw. It requires the like-minded cooperation of other people. If there is one thing that we have learned in recent decades it is that the Palestinian-Arabs, as a group, tend not to yearn for "new & modern Palestinian cities in the West Bank."
If they wanted modernity, autonomy, and peace, they could have had that in 1948.
Instead they chose Jihadism, dependency, and war... as they perpetually whine to the international community that the Jews are being mean to them.
Amazing that the US recognizes no part of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, not even western Jerusalem. Even more amazing is the references to "Tel Aviv" as if it were Israel's capital. "We're waiting to hear from Tel Aviv." Keep waiting.
ReplyDeleteJeff,
Deletethe British press don't necessarily believe that Jerusalem is in Israel.
http://honestreporting.com/telegraph-places-al-aqsa-mosque-in-jerusalem-palestine/
k,
DeleteYes, I know. In fact the British gov't. at the time of partition did its bit to make sure Jerusalem wouldn't be part of Israel.
What foreign policy is anyone talking about? There is no 'foreign policy'. It does not exist. There is no plan, no doctrine, no world view, no stance on any goddamn thing at all. To say such and such controls our 'foreign policy' is like claiming to be a leader of a gang rape. WTF are they even thinking of?
ReplyDeleteThe levers of government.
DeleteThe "Schugar Suggestion" is nothing less than a demand that the "Jews do the Arabs Homework" for them. A mirror image of the oldest hatred "The Jews Ate My Homework" In his view the Arabs are incapable of doing their own homework for themselves. Antisemitism feigning a concern for human rights that is simply the "bigotry of low expectations" vis-a-vis the Arabs.
ReplyDeleteYou guys should know that I have changed the settings on Israel Thrives to allow for anonymous postings. This has not always worked out well in the past for the obvious reason that more people can comment and people can leave heinous remarks with the anonymous tag.
ReplyDeleteWe'll take it as it comes and my hope is simply to increase the level of user participation.
If it turns into a problem - which I suspect that it will not - I can always turn it back.
I am still a little surprised that so many in the pro-Israel blogosphere use a moderated comment system. This means that only comments approved by the editor would see the light of day.
Such a system goes directly against my own long-standing liberal-left sensibilities.